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Resetting a Garmin Forerunner 210 with blank screen

I really like this Garmin Forerunner 210, but twice it just gave me a blank screen and nothing else. After some research on the net I found some reset methods: (note: these were not always for the 210 model but until now method 1 and 2 worked for me; you may need method 3 one day …)

Method 1:
Press the lap/reset button a few seconds and then press the light button to switch on the Garmin device again. Pressing both lap/reset and the light button may work better: keep both buttons pressed for several seconds until the 210 watch is “reanimated” again.

Method 2:
If this fails you can try the hard reset; keep the following 3 buttons pressed together during some seconds: page/menu, lap/reset and light. Release the buttons and press the light button again.

Method 3:
Soft Reset: keep the page/menu and lap/reset pressed for a few seconds.

Update – 25/01/2014:

Garmin released a firmware update, which should fix this issue. I installed it today: hope it really helps ;-)

Method 2 worked for me too after locking on “saving activities” screen. You have to hold these 3 buttons down for maybe 15 seconds or more until the screen blanks before releasing and pressing the Light button

That’s too bad. It can help to repeat the methods, because the timing seems to be rather important. Reassure yourself the device is correctly connected for charging; deconnect and reconnect again.
Sometimes a short movie is clearer: some of the tips can be found on YouTube. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccWYgdtB2JY and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyAw-4GjUJA (although they are not specific for the 210, they do work). Hope this helps.

you’re great !
My watch screen went all blank while trying to download data on my laptop and i couldn’t switch it on again!
Method 1 worked perfectly (Pressing both lap/reset and the light button; i did for 30 seconds and the screen went on; wow! magic!)
thanks so much to have spent some time on posting these solutions, it is such a great help for us!

Okay thank you so freaking much. I have a 5k today and it was so ironic how my watch didn’t want to work. Until I found these methods. The first one worked for me. I had to do it serveral times though. All and all my life is saved. I would hate to go on a run with a normal timed watch. Thanks again!!

Thank you so much for posting this. Every now and then my 210 decides to stop working and just beeeeeeep nonstop. And every time it happens I go through the google results unsuccessfully until I hit this page. And it works!

Lesson learned: bookmark this page for future use!

PS The “hold both” method of Method 1 worked for me this time. I don’t remember which methods I used in the past for this problem.

Thanks for the heads up on the firmware upgrade. I thought I had the most up to date version as Garmin Connect usually prompts me when upgrades are available. Went through a different update procedure using myGarmin Dashboard, as instructed after following the link you provided. Maybe now we can finally see an end to these random blank screen issues. Such a drag for an otherwise great unit.

Had continued locking up and blank screen issues. Garmin support recommended I delete old activity records on the watch, expecting one might be corrupted. I removed all of them, over 100, and it’s been totally stable. Garmin also recommended ejecting the device first, then unplug the USB & finally remove the watch from the sync claw to avoid issues in the future.